Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Runners, Swimmers, Bikers, Campers

In the middle of September, Ammon had a XC meet in Challis on a Saturday afternoon. Josh and I decided to make a weekend family camping trip out of it. That morning, we took our trailer to Challis Hot Springs, one of our favorite camping spots, where the XC meet also happened to take place. We got the trailer parked along the Salmon River just in time to watch some of the races.

We saw some of our cousins there, too! Josh's cousin Randy coaches the Jerome girl's XC team. Randy's son was racing on the boys' team, and his daughter & another son were there to cheer. Cousin Brenda came to support her daughter Tanisha (Randy's neice) who ran on the girls' team. It was fun to visit with them!


Ammon ran a great race with the middle school boys' team. The Challis course is very spectator-friendly, and we got to see him at different points in the race.



Josh surprised me by announcing that he would run in the coaches/family/fun race after the high school & middle school races.



It was the only race of Ammon's season that our whole family was able to watch. Jonah & Micah rode their bikes alongside the course, watching & cheering on the racers including Ammon & Josh. (You can seen Josh running up on the hill in this photo).

All of the races were done by dinnertime, so we settled in and then went soaking on and off the rest of the night and the following morning in the hot springs pools. There was a lot of swimmers and customers on Saturday night, but we had the pools to ourselves on Sunday morning.



 

I don't think Ammon saw the sign behind him. Just sayin'....
 
Josh & Ammon were pretty tired the next morning after running hard races the day before, and I loved watching their "Like Father/Like Son" actions. They slept in, ate breakfast in bed, and read their books all morning!
 
I really enjoyed our last camping trip for the year...there were so many good things that happened:
1. the smoke had cleared out on Saturday, and the races were run with clear blue skies overhead.
2. the fire ban in Custer County had been lifted just that week, so we were able to roast marshmallows & hot dogs over the campfire.
3. Josh & Ammon both ran good races, and our entire family was there to watch, support & cheer them on.
4. Kanyon was experiencing a cold and was having difficulty breathing very well, but after soaking in the hot springs, his cold symptoms greatly improved.
5. We had an unexpected & pleasant visit with relatives!
 
It was such a great camping weekend that I was sad to come back home! I always have a hard time putting away the trailer for the winter, knowing that we won't go camping again for 6 months. I love camping with my family!

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